As increasing numbers of network functions have been virtualized, various solutions for resource elasticity in NFV have been implemented. In one example, heuristics are used to implement a scaling mechanism for dynamic provisioning and scaling of individual or groups of VNFs (virtual network functions) within a data center. However, effectively relying on heuristics to implement a scaling mechanism requires planning. In another example, container-based orchestration infrastructures, such as Kubernetes, are used for turning up service containers. However, even with these infrastructures, the trigger to scale is based on heuristics such as CPU utilization. A further example for on-demand resource availability is socket activation. However, socket activation and other container creation implementations are narrowly focused on specific applications, such as web applications.